The Petroleum Ministry late last night issued orders increasing the dealers commission on petrol from Rs 1.49 per litre to Rs 1.78 a litre. The same on diesel has been hiked by 17.7 paise -- from 91 paise to Rs 1.08. After taking into account the incidence on VAT, the hike in diesel comes to 20 paise, sources said.

Sources said the decision to hike dealers’ commission was taken on Thursday but orders were issued only last night.

The increase in dealers’ commission is first since July 2011. During that period, the commission was hiked by 28 paise on petrol and by 15.5 paise on diesel.

Federation of All India Petroleum Traders General Secretary Ajay Bansal said the hike falls short of their demand for 67 paise increase in commission on petrol and 42 paise on diesel considering steep hike in operating cost of a petrol pump.

"Few of our operating costs like running pumps on generators, free services (like air and water) and increase in evaporation, seem to have not been taken into account while calculating the proposed commission," Bansal said.

The Ministry, he said, has assured to look into these in two months time.

The government had earlier this month hiked commission paid to LPG distributors by Rs 11.42 per cylinder. Subsidised LPG in Delhi now costs Rs 410.42 per cylinder, up from Rs 399.

The commission paid to LPG dealers increased from Rs 25.83 per 14.2-kg cylinder to Rs 37.25 with effect from October 7.